A s new retail business owners, Jaqueline Martini and I hope for a great rush of traffic on our Lucy & Black Vintage website on Black Friday. Conceived by Martini in September 2011, Lucy & Black Vintage sells unique vintage clothing, hats, shoes, purses, and jewelry. I took more of an investor approach to this business as I am in it for the short haul only-enough time to get the business going, make a few thousand dollars off of vintage clothing investments, and then move on to my next venture. Although the economy is down, we hope business picks up after Thanksgiving. As a start-up business, there has been thousands of dollars invested in purchasing these vintage and antique items, building a website, dry cleaners, and photography fees. These expenses are natural, yet they are breaking our banks.
Martini, the brainchild of the company, has been working on creatively displaying the Lucy & Black Vintage inventory in preparation of Black Friday, while I supply many of the items. She hired Joe Stauffer of Shutter Blade Media to shoot some of the commercials, Kristi Ray, Wilmington area actress to model hats, and is currently looking for unique models for future photo shoots. We hope that Black Friday helps us to recoup some of our expenses so that we may venture to New York City to make large vintage purchases from wholesalers located in that area.
To entice our online customers to shop, we are offering free shipping on all purchases totaling over $50 purchased on November 25 or items shipped anywhere within in the 48 continental U.S. states. As Black Friday approaches, we hope that our business draws in a crowd who might not want to venture out of their homes into mad traffic and jam-packed Wal-Marts and Targets, and instead, stay within the comfort of their homes to shop for unique holiday items for the ladies they love.